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Friday, November 27, 2015

When I teach the part of Plato’s Apology where Socrates says that “the unexamined life is not
worth living” (38a), I ask students to engage in their own Socratic examination
to explain whether they think this statement is true.I ask them to try to think of
counter-examples of unexamined lives that are worth living or examined lives
that aren’t.

Often students will say that you should examine your
life because it would allow you to live without regrets.They sometimes say this as if living without
regrets is the real goal, and living an examined life is merely a means of doing
so.

My students are representative of the larger culture, one that embraces the philosophy of YOLO and no regrets.Everyone wants to avoid regrets.Regrets gnaw at the soul. You play a game of“I should have…” and “Why didn’t I?”The past becomes a battleground of
desires.Regret can incapacitate people
as they face the future.

A

t least this seems to be the popular conception.

The assumption is always that regrets are all
bad and should be avoided.

But are regrets always bad?I don’t think so.

Being Thankful for
Regrets

Yesterday we celebrated our Thanksgiving holiday here in the
United States.One popular tradition is
to enumerate what you’re thankful for.I’m thankful for lots of things.Of course, I’m thankful for my family and friends and my cats.I’m thankful that I have a fulfilling career
and no major health issues.I’m thankful
that I have neither the greed nor the need to go “Black Friday” shopping
today.I’m thankful that the new Star Wars movie is coming out soon!

Thursday, November 26, 2015

It's Thanksgiving here in the United States, so I'm watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I keep seeing the giant sign that says, "Believe," which reminds me of this post from a few months back:

Everybody's favorite (or second favorite after Battle Royale) child murder games are back! This is technically a sequel of a sequel, so it seems like a good place to start.

First off, I have to admit that I haven't read the books. I would never criticize other adults who enjoy YA fiction, but YA books always bring me back to the uncomfortable space of teenagerness - a space I'd personally rather not inhabit. Nonetheless, I have enjoyed The Hunger Games movies, and it's always nice to see science fiction go mainstream, especially with an interesting female protagonist.

Even if you haven't seen the movies or read the books, you probably have the basic idea: dystopian totalitarian regime makes kids murder each other in a kind of Running Man: Kids' Edition, intrepid heroine survives to challenge the system. My favorite example of the extent to which The Hunger Games has permeated pop culture is Stephen Colbert's Hungry for Power Games, a series about US Presidential candidates dropping out of the race.

Be like the headland on which the waves break constantly, which still stands firm while the foaming waters are put to rest around it. ‘It is my bad luck that this has happened to me!’ On the contrary, say, ‘It is my good luck that, although this has happened to me, I can bear it without getting upset, neither crushed by the present nor afraid of the future.’

Thursday: Virtue
The ancient Stoics thought that virtue is the highest good. In fact, virtue is the only real good. Other things, like wealth, health, fame, and so on, aren't really valuable in themselves. The only thing that really matters to Stoics is being a good person.

Bill and Ted: Proponents of virtue as excellence

Like most ancient Greek and Roman philosophers, the Stoics are virtue theorists: what matters in ethics is character, which is different than many modern ethical theories, like utilitarianism and deontology, which tend to focus on the rightness or wrongness of actions. Virtue ethics has made a come back in the discipline of philosophy in recent decades (see this article on Julia Annas, one contemporary philosopher who has been part of this come back).

The Thursday Lunchtime exercise in the 2015 Stoic Week Handbook introduces the idea of values clarification. If virtue is so important, you should try to be clear about what counts as virtuous. You should also try, as far as possible, to make sure that your values match up with the way you live your life. The Handbook suggests that asking questions like the following is one way to do this.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

This is the second post in my series, Sci-Fi Stoic Week. Stoic Week is an international event that invites you to live like a Stoic for a week by working through mental exercises. To learn more about Stoic Week as well as my take on it, see my previous post.

Tuesday: What is in Our Control and the Reserve Clause
Tuesday's morning text is one of my favorite parts of the Meditations from Marcus Aurelius, one that has helped me get out of bed on more than one occasion!

Monday, November 2, 2015

For the last few years I've participated in an international event known as Stoic Week. This year's Stoic Week begins today, Monday, November 2, and runs through the end of the week. The idea is to give people a sense of what it's like to live as a Stoic, which falls in line with the ancient Greek and Roman ideal of philosophy as a way of life, an ideal eloquently explained by French philosopher, Pierre Hadot (1922-2010).

One of the ideas mentioned in the Handbook is to blog about your experiences during Stoic Week. Each day involves a Morning Meditation, Lunch Time Exercise, and Evening Meditation, so there's plenty to write about. Since this is the first time I've had a blog during Stoic Week, I thought this sounded like a fine idea. But I was also struck by a seemingly crazy idea: what if I stayed true to the inclusive sense of this blog's subject of "philosophy and science fiction" and tried to form connections between Stoicism and science fiction? Maybe this idea isn't so crazy, since I've argued in the past that the study of ancient philosophy is a lot like science fiction. In any case, that's what I'm going to try to do this week.

About Me

I am a science fiction fan and philosophy professor. I've been a science fiction fan as long as I can remember, and I later realized that I was also interested in philosophy all along! Examined Worlds brings my two favorite things together. See the About page for more about me.